Passenger side spring binding on spring/shock tower

[Irun]

For personal reasons, I stored my Jeep for over a year and put zero miles on it. Before storing it, I had taken it to a supposedly reputable shop for a 4 wheel alignment. After the alignment I basically brought the vehicle home and tucked it away in the garage.

About 4 weeks ago I put it back on the road, but immediately noticed a popping sound originating from the front end. Spending several hours trying to chase down the problem resulted in nothing but frustration. Then, I happened upon the culprit while doing routine maintenance.

Apparently, when the technician did the alignment, using the double adjustable control arms (which I paid extra for), he induced spring bind on the passenger side, by pushing the spring against the front part of the spring/shock tower (seen in the 1st picture). Oddly, the driver side is fine though (seen in the 2nd picture).

Today I got under the Jeep and took some measurements and here's what I found.

Front Pinion Angle 6°
Front Driveshaft Angle 10.5°
Passenger Side Caster 8.5°
Driver Side Caster 9.5°

Obviously, I need to reset the front pinion angle, to get the pinion and driveshaft numbers in alignment. My question/assumption is that as I lengthen the upper arms, my caster numbers will come down, which will also move the spring backwards enough to clear the tower.

Have I got this correct? Also, is it unusual for the two caster numbers to be so far off? I realize these are rough measurements, but I was consistent in how I acquired them.

FWIW, I'm running the following:
- 4" lift
- 35" tires
- Warn Lockout Hubs

Passenger Side

Driver Side

 

[Irun]

I found a comment from @mrblaine in another thread about caster and cross caster, which pointed me to the resolution. After adjusting the upper and lower control arms, I now have these numbers:

Front Pinion Angle 10°
Front Driveshaft Angle 11°
Passenger Side Caster 6°
Driver Side Caster 6°

After making the adjustments I now have a very small gap between the spring and tower. Enough that the the bind and pop is mostly gone. I'm going to take this to another 4x4 shop and see if I can't get them to dial it in better on an alignment rack. This time I'm going to be there to talk to the tech!

 

[LONGJP2]

I've got the exact same thing going on after I switched to Rock Krawler triple rate springs. I think part of the problem is the top coil gets pushed down into the second coil and pushes the spring to one side. I don't have adjustable arms yet to compensate for caster.